1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of business methods and practices. More specifically, the present invention is related to discrepancy assessment, definition, planning, and evaluation between a current state and a defined state of business practice.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
As business environments become more complex and the number of multi-organization combinations increases, effectively clarifying desired changes and outcomes from a detailed business practices perspective becomes vital to the success and sustenance of overall business objectives. Business practices are key aspects of business organizations determining how an organization operates and how business is performed within an organization. They have a strong impact on what people do and how they do it, and what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable. Business practices are also a reflection of underlying behaviors, beliefs, values, assumptions, and mindsets held in common across an organization. This common underlying core of business practices is frequently referred to as culture.
Business practices are often seen as either an enabler or a barrier in the pursuit of goals that an organization has set for itself. If current business practices are well aligned with what an organization wants to do and how it wants to do it, current business practices will enable the achievement of desired outcomes. However, if current business practices are not well aligned or if there are conflicting sets of business practices within the organization or with other organizations required to achieve the goals, current business practices become a barrier to desired outcomes.
Circumstances in which current business practices are often a barrier include:
                mergers or acquisitions in which two or more companies combine business structures to achieve new business results (e.g., HP/Compaq merger, IBM's acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting);        partnerships or alliances in which two or more companies work collaboratively and leverage their capabilities, while remaining separate and distinct entities (e.g., e-marketplace, joint venture, venture capital funding for an entrepreneurial venture); and        significant company transformations in which changes to business practices or existing culture must occur within an organization (e.g., bankruptcy, IBM's On Demand vision, combination of two or more autonomous business units, implementation of a shared services model).At the core of each of these circumstances lie several factors necessitating consideration:        individually and collectively, people carry perceptions, experiences, history, opinions, knowledge, skills, and preferences into these circumstances;        there exist a number of different methods to successfully perform work;        reconciling differences of opinion and preference to identify the “right” answers for a given circumstance can be difficult;        objectively measuring the degree of change that has occurred with respect to business practices and culture is difficult; and        significant transformation and integration efforts are lengthy, and often take years before they are considered self-sustaining.        
The method of the present invention targets solutions to problems related to circumstances requiring business practice or culture synchronization. Thus, a focused, tangible, and systemic method is provided for organizations seeking to transform their business practices or cultures, or seeking to integrate or align their business practices or culture with that of one or more other organizations.
At a high level, there are three steps in the process of synchronizing one or more business entities. The first step is to determine the direction a participating entity will take through the definition of vision, mission, strategy, or objectives. The second step is to make business value decisions in view of a determined direction. Lastly, decisions are executed or implemented, thus ensuring that a targeted business value is achieved. In each of these steps, business practices and culture must be considered.
During an implementation or execution step, desired changes and outcomes are clarified. However, defining desired changes and outcomes in a way that is clearly actionable might require further consideration. Compounding this issue is the fact that there are typically several actionable alternatives to take in the pursuit of a goal. Conflicting versions of alternatives are also likely to be in current practice throughout a single organization and are highly likely to exist between organizations.
Prior art approaches to dealing with synchronizing, transforming, integrating, or aligning business practices and cultures are summarized in two basic approaches; an attribute and behavior approach and a principle and value approach. Both approaches are similar in that they seek to define aspects of a desired future state of business, define and communicate priorities, and are comprised of a few, key, high-level components. Also, both tend to describe a future state of business with discrete terms that are implied as equally weighted.
The focus on visible attributes and behaviors within an environment help to make aspects of a future state of business practice more tangible, objective, and measurable. However, attributes and behaviors are not likely to be fully understood unless communicated in a way that conveys desired and undesired outcomes, and how such outcomes are achieved in practice. Additionally, focusing on behaviors may do little to change the mindsets and belief systems of those performing work required to achieve desired outcomes. Without changes in thinking, particularly in terms of what is “right” for a given environment, it is more difficult to achieve permanent or self-sustaining change. Also, the definition of desired attributes and behaviors is frequently abstract and separated from the issues people are likely to experience, thus the definitions are inadequate to address differing opinions of what is expected. Such focus may provide less clarity regarding future expectations. If a group reconciliation process is used to identify attributes and behaviors, there is likely to be a high degree of commitment to those attributes or behaviors. However, without a method to predict how attributes and behaviors are incorporated into realistic work situations and dilemmas, it is likely that conflict will arise.
Because a principle and value approach seeks to define a desired future state of business in terms that identify priorities and what is appropriate for a given environment at a high level, such definitions are typically abstracted and disconnected from a real work context. Without a more tangible, visual way to describe expectations of business practice and workflow, little change may occur. The reasons for this are that people are not likely to fully grasp the ramifications of the desired changes, or worse, may believe that their actions already correspond to the desired changes since they agree with them intellectually. A principle and value approach states expectations in terms of singular statements with varying level of detail. Without contrasting statements and statements in which true differences of mindset and opinion exist within an environment, those implementing decisions may have little context to take appropriate action.
Either prior to or subsequent to the development of attributes and behaviors or principles and values defining a desired future state of business practice, a definition of the current state of business practice may be developed. Current state definitions are created to enable a gap assessment. An assessment seeking to objectively identify what is most likely to help create and drive the changes is more beneficial than an approach that simply relies on opinion. However, without the benefit of a discrete definition of future state of business practice expectations, it is common for people to work actively to manage the implications of business practice change to their best advantage.
Whatever the precise merits, features, and advantages of the above cited references, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of the present invention.